Friday, June 22, 2007

Cuddlebuddies and wild berries

Wow. The last time I mentioned Daughter Dearest’s boyfriend was nearly two months ago. What with one thing and another, he never got back down here. They’ve been staying in touch on-line and by phone, and got into some arguments anyway, and actually broke up for a couple of weeks. But with school out, she hasn’t had enough to do with her part-time job and the chicken houses, and got to missing him big-time.

It hasn’t helped that The Boy hooked up with a girl on Myspace, ostensibly the keyboardist for the band, but they got more into each other than the music. She’s 16, kind of marginal age-wise, but better than the Nightmare Scenario that played out a while back: he hooked up with a girl who said she was 18, but was (according to her parents anyway) 12. P.O.D. went to pick her up, looked at her, and asked to see her driver’s license (“it’s suspended”) before letting her hop in. The phone calls started very soon after that, with everyone freaking out and P.O.D. taking her home as fast as he could. She kept calling after that, maybe even crossing the stalking line, and ran away a couple of days later with her 10-year-old cousin, then called here. The Boy got her to tell him where she was… and we immediately relayed that to her parents. They were somewhat peeved at The Boy, and I thought he might get busted (and that would Be It For Him until October) — but when I told them to check her Myspace page and look where she said she was 18, they were a bit more understanding. The current girlfriend is more on the up-and-up — we’ve talked to her mom — and very cute. I’m not sure what she sees in the uglified mess that is The Boy these days… but then again, she is blonde.

But I digress. DD hasn’t seen her boyfriend in a couple of months, and this girl being over here all too often lately hasn’t helped. She’s been pushing to spend a long weekend in his town when we go to Michigan next month, but then decided she just couldn’t wait that long. After I told her I couldn’t get time off work because I’m trying to finish a project in time to go when originally planned (the truth), she managed to persuade Mrs. Fetched to go up with her for a long weekend. So I’m stuck here with The Boy, a bunch of his friends, and my patience has been running thin with him this last week. Pray for me.

All is not doom and gloom, however. Mrs. Fetched left some mail for me to put in the box, so I walked it down when I got home from work. As I was hiking back up the driveway, I noticed that there were some ripe blackberries in the briars alongside. I grabbed a bowl and started picking, working my way around the back of the house and then behind the detached garage. That’s where I found several blueberry bushes; and some of them were ripe too — pea-sized but tasty. There’s plenty more to get next weekend too.

Finally, I worked my way around to where the jalapeño plants are. It looks like a dog might have run across the bed and knocked over two of the plants; the smaller peppers shown came off a stalk that was broken off completely. The Boy and his friends were hanging out at the bottom of the driveway, so I finished the circle and tossed him one of the small peppers. Several of us (including me) took a bite of it — the pepper part was fairly mild but the seeds were hot. But the blackberries were sweet too; I’ve got both The Boy and his girlfriend to agree to a little picking expedition tomorrow morning. Drop off a couple of things for Mrs. Fetched after that, then it’s off to the resort (where I escaped, sort of, last year) for basic hanging out at the pool. I was hoping to fix black beans & rice for supper tomorrow, but can’t find the beans.

Anyway… if The Boy can refrain from pushing my buttons, I might be able to salvage this weekend.

Boran, you have a little while to go. The first inklngs of what you'll be facing will probably start in about 4 years.

KB, don't worry about the confusion. Things are OK, although The Boy went into button-pushing overdrive last night. After I found him & his girlfriend upstairs, after they've both had repeated warnings about that, I found two 12-packs of beer in the garage, only one of which was open. And there have been repeated warnings about bringing beer/etc. over here to "band practice." He was also stumbling drunk, trying to tell me he was just tired.

That has only hardened my resolved to boot his butt out of here. The girlfriend is going home this evening, and won't be back. Well, she probably will, but not because Mrs. Fetched or I want her here.

Ok, FAR... time to start the countdown, eh? Give me the precise date, and we'll set off fireworks in yours and Mrs. Fetched's honour on the joyous boot-day! Honestly, my friend, my buttons would be long worn out by now with those shenanigans. At least in my younger, wilder, crazy days, I at least tried to make sure that the consequences of my actions only bit me in the ass ... seems like TB needs to learn that one. Oh well, just 10 more days ... hehehe.

KB, you're exactly right about the vampire analogy! They may not suck blood, but they can damn well drain your energies and make a muck of things if you allow them in. Rule of thumb in our house is ... if ANY of the dogs display immediate hostility to someone, they do not enter. It's worked for me for years and I highly recommend that "sniff test."

btw FAR... you guys could use a nice lil Cardigan Corgi down there yourselves.... hint, hint.

Oh and I forgot... re: the berries ... we planted this blueberry bush 3 years ago and it has struggled, due to being eaten by rabbits and such so that we've surrounded it by a wire covered tomato cage ... well this year it managed to put on a bunch of berries which Fernymoss discovered this morning had all been devoured by some critter. Be it squirrel, rabbit, squinny or whatever, he was quite disappointed. We did see a male Cardinal hanging out back there today and both said that if it was the cardinal who got them, that's fine. We're hoping it was the bird...

The house arrest is scheduled to end on July 2. We are scheduling July 3 to send him packing. But don't set off any fireworks w/o confirmation… the best-laid plans and all that. Corgi, corgi... we already have waaayyy too many dogs. One is a huge but timid Akita mix who let M.A.E. touch him (barely) after she'd been there a year.

KB, I like the vampire analogy too! It really "sucked" to have to keep an eye on them constantly. The girlfriend isn't too bad, for 16 at least, but takes a left-handed approach to getting her way that I'm quite familiar with: she'll agree to anything, then do what she planned on. Frustrating, but at least it isn't The Boy's "butt heads over even the most trivial matters" approach. Maybe she'll rub off on him. Maybe I should rephrase that. :-P

Comments are welcome, and they don't have to be complimentary. I delete spam on sight, but that's pretty much it for moderation. Long off-topic rants or unconstructive flamage are also candidates for deletion but I haven’t seen any of that so far.

I have comment moderation on for posts over a week old, but that’s so I’ll see them.

About Me

I've been doing technical writing since 1982. In that time, I got married, raised two kids, and am now raising a grandkid. The latter, family, is what defines me. If my career were my life, many things would be different.

I've always wanted to write stories, but too often found myself doing other things. At some point in the last few years, I got serious about it. In that time, I've written two novels, started a third, and wrote numerous short stories and flash fiction pieces. Many of them can be found on my blog, and I'm in the final few laps of publishing one of my novels, White Pickups.

I'm not all that concerned about "getting published" as eBook outlets now make it possible to bypass the entire query/agent/publisher gauntlet. Yes, doing it yourself is a lot of work — but honestly, the traditional route requires much the same amount (and kinds) of work but without any guarantee of seeing your work on the shelves, actual or virtual. That's not to say I would turn down a traditional book deal if one were offered, but I'm not going to go begging either. In either case, I don't expect to quit my dayjob. It's more important to me that people read and enjoy my stories than having some commercial success.